Interest in World of Warcraft has just been bumped up, with the release of the 4.0.1 patch… for Cataclysm. That means the next expansion release can only be just around the corner!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Now. Whether or not this new patch is in your neck of the woods just yet (rumours are flying that it may only be European for a little bit), it’s a pretty impressive little bundle. Blizzard announced, back in April, a bunch of currency changes for both PvP and PvE – basically, that they were scrapping badges and replacing them with an all-new system using points. 4.0.1 brings about these changes, as gamers around the world are seeing their Triumph and Frost upper-tier emblems converted to Justice points (at a rate of 2.75 points per emblem), while low-tier emblems convert simply to gold.

Want to do the maths? We’ve got this handy dandy gold conversion rate for you:

Emblem of Heroism = 5.5 gold each

Emblem of Valor = 5.5 gold each

Emblem of Conquest = 5.5 gold each

Badge of Justice = 1.833 gold each

…all of the leftover PvP currencies – marks of honor, Arena Points, Wintergrasp Marks, Stone Keeper Shards and old Honor Points will be converted to the [i]new[/i] Honor Point system as well, with the following conversions::

Old Honor * 0.024

Old Arena Points * 0.85

Battleground Mark of Honor * 2.976

Wintergrasp Mark of Honor * 19.08

Stone Keeper Shard * 1.6

Venture Coin * 3

Spirit Shard * 1

You’ll only be able to store up 4,000 Justice and Honor Points at a time – every time you earn above that mark, it will be converted to gold. (Each Honor Point above 4,000 will give you 35 silver per point, and you’ll receive 2 gold per Justice Point above 4,000.) When the conversion initially goes live, however, a softcap will be included so that you will be able to store more than 4,000 points (so, if you have to convert a lot of points, coins and shards) – but once you’ve crossed that threshold, you will not be able to earn any more until you spend some and drop below 4K again.

Clear as mud, right?

Keep an eye out, your launcher might just be reporting that Data for the next patch is available. Download will start after you exit World of Warcraft. – Next step: Cataclysm!